


no language left to say it

by Murf1307



Series: blue skies forever [3]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Darwin Lives, F/M, First Kiss, Fix-It, Pre-Relationship, Trans Alex Summers, Trans Female Character, Trans Girl Alex Summers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 03:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17317010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: Shaw attacks the CIA compound, and Alex and Darwin fight side by side for the very first time.  Armando learns some things about himself and his abilities, and Angel leaves the team.





	no language left to say it

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this is the fiftieth time I’ve written ‘Shaw attacks the compound’ fic, but I think this one needed to be written in the context of the rest of the AU. Hope you enjoy it either way!

Armando’s not always...sure...about Alex.  Oh, he’s sure about some things — she’s the prettiest girl here, in his eyes, with how she laughs and the way her eyes sparkle when she beats him at pinball.

But he’s not sure he can tell what she wants, or if it’s safe for either of them to want it in public.

He doesn’t touch her, right now, because the rest of the group’s around.  She gets cautious, tense, when  _ anyone _ touches her around other people, and he doesn’t know what else he can do but avoid it.

But he watches her, the way her hands work the flipper switches, the way she’s utterly focused on the machine, and how  _ good _ at it she is.

“Man,” he says, “you are  _ killing _ me.”

She smirks, just a tiny bit, but doesn’t look up.  “I had a lot of free time.”

“And you practiced pinball?” he teases.

The ball doesn’t quite make the flippers, but the second ball is next, so she keeps going, pulling the plunger.  “Mhm. Not a lot of things I could do, situation I was in.”

“Makes sense.”

He’s about to say something else, but then, as the spring snaps the plunger back in and Alex’s second round begins, he hears something.  A... _ thump _ … on the roof of the compound.  His instincts immediately kick on.   _ Something _ has happened.

Then, another thump.  

“Hey, did you hear that?” he asks Alex, turning away from the machine.  

Two more thumps.  Alex is silent, still playing.

Armando bites his lip, and, carefully, he begins to move toward the window, his hand sliding out and pressing against Alex’s stomach, trying to get her attention and guide her away from the game.

“Darwin?” she asks, softly, looking at him.  He meets her eyes, gesturing toward the window with his head.

Everyone else is moving toward the window, too, and soon, they’re all gathered around the closed curtain.  They all look at each other, and then Armando presses the button to open it.

It’s dark outside, and they don’t  _ see _ anything right away.  Not even Armando.

Then, a man falls from the sky, bones clearly shattering on impact as he hits the sidewalk  _ right outside the window. _

Raven lets out a scream, her face crumpling.  Alex shifts toward her for a moment, then bites her lip and slips over to Armando’s right hand.  She looks at him, and it takes a moment for him to realize what she’s doing:

She’s looking to him for direction.

Shit.

Looks like he’s in charge, now. 

He reaches out, getting his arm between everyone and the window, and Alex slips across his field of vision, moving toward the other side of the group as he leads everyone away from the window.  If he had time to think, he would notice how well they fight together. Hell, it's not even a  _ fight _ , not yet, but Alex pays attention, puts herself opposite him, the rest of the group between them.

Like between the two of them, they can protect the rest.

With her plasma and his evolution, well, maybe, maybe they can.  They meet each other’s eyes over the heads of everyone else, as explosions and gunfire get closer to where the six of them are standing.

It doesn’t take more than a moment, the eye contact and a tiny, mutual nod.

“Screw this, we gotta help,” Armando says, loud enough for everyone to hear, and he races for the door of the rec room.  He can hear Alex’s shoes — chunky-heeled and distinctive — as she follows him. It’s almost comforting, really.

She  _ gets _ it.  If someone didn’t know any better, they might assume they’ve done this before.

They get to the end of the hallway, stopping short as a jet of flame blasts out from around the corner.  

Okay, so that’s not an option.

A hand on the small of his back, and it only takes a glance to know it’s Alex, that she’s still following him, and he leads the group right back to where they started.

They’re just going to have to wait, to fight when the opportunity arises.  

This time, Armando finds himself with Alex at his right hand.  There’s muffled screaming coming from around the corner, down the hall, and Armando doesn’t know what’s coming, but, well…

He knows  _ he’ll _ live through it, at least.

“ _ Just let us normal people go, _ ” comes a terrified voice from down the hall, begging with whoever’s coming.  The next noise, at least, implies that they didn’t.

He glances over at the rest, trying to read their reactions.  Alex sways a little more into his space, her hands curled into fists.  Raven is crying. He can’t see Sean over Hank’s shoulder. Angel, well, Angel looks  _ angry. _

He is, too.  It hurts, to hear that, even — or especially — in a moment like this.

But it’s not really a luxury they have, not now.  

Then, the door opens.  From either side, the windows shatter.  Raven lets out a scream.

The man who walks in through the door looks...well, he’s dressed in a nice suit, but it doesn’t fit  _ quite _ right, and the helmet he’s wearing is ugly.  Doesn’t match the outfit at all, really.

“Ah, is the telepath not here?” he asks, and takes the helmet off.  He’s white, obviously, and the look on his face is like he’s gonna try and sell them something.  “Good. That’ll make this easier.”

Armando keeps his expression flat.  Whatever this guy wants, he’s not going to get it here.

“My name is Sebastian Shaw, and I’m here to make you an offer.”

Of course he is.  Armando doesn’t move, doesn’t say a thing.  He doesn’t know what he  _ would _ say, even, beyond  _ no. _

Shaw steps toward the group of them, his flunkies — a man who looks just like the devil, and one with tornadoes in the palms of his hands — coming in through the window.

“There’s a war, coming.  And we’re,” he gestures around at all of them, “the ones who are going to survive it.”  He smirks a little. “I want to offer the six of you a choice. You can stay among the humans, and suffer alongside them when the time comes,” he continues, his eyes catching each of theirs by turns, “or, you can join me, and live like kings and queens.”

Armando knows bullshit when he hears it.  Shaw’s slick, but Armando remains unmoved.

Angel, though — Shaw offers her his hand, and she  _ takes _ it.

They all move toward the window.  Armando reaches out, frowning, at her, offering her his hand, too.

“We don’t belong here,” she says.  Her eyes slip past his, and he thinks,  _ oh, Alex _ .

But Alex doesn’t move, and neither does Armando, for a long moment.  Angel nods, a little, and turns away, moving toward the window again.  

“We have to do something,” Raven says, from somewhere behind Alex.

Armando takes a deep breath, a plan beginning to form in the back of his mind.  He turns to Alex, his hand finding hers, hidden between their bodies.

Her expression at  first is betrayed, and she rips her hand away from his.  He presses his hand to her waist instead, his face shifts, hoping that she’ll understand what he means, what he needs her to do.

She does, her eyes widening just a little, her face otherwise softening into understanding.

He turns away from her and moves toward Shaw and Angel.  “Wait,” he says, and steps out into the courtyard. He tries to ignore the bodies and the shattered glass.

Shaw meets his eyes, and it makes Armando sick inside for a moment.

“I adapt to survive.  Guess that means I’m coming with you.”  He ignores the slime in Shaw’s smile, and moves so that he’s standing next to Angel.

The others are moving across the room, but Alex is moving slower, her eyes following him, and he nods a little.

“Alex!” he calls out, and then moves so he can curl around Angel, keep her safe from Alex’s blast radius.  Part of him will feel guilty, later, for asking Alex to do this, but they don’t have any other options to keep the group together, now do they?

He hears Alex let out her blast, but it never hits.

Armando pulls away from Angel to see Shaw slowly compressing the ring, making it smaller and smaller until he just...absorbs it into his hands.

It’s horrifying, and Armando acts on instinct, desperate, as he tries to punch Shaw in the face instead.

Shaw blocks his punch, and the vibration where their arms connect is painful.  Armando can’t stop him when Shaw grabs his neck.

“Adapt to this,” Shaw says, and shoves a ball of energy into Armando’s mouth, down his throat. 

It burns like fire, and Armando can’t pay attention to anything else for a moment, his body freezing in place as his throat plates over, his chest glowing underneath the wave of armor.

Shaw and Angel and Shaw’s men disappear, and Armando can’t stop them.

All he can do is try and survive, his body going into overdrive.  He realizes after a moment that the energy feels familiar.

It’s  _ Alex’s _ .

He looks over at her.  She’s frozen, too, staring at him, and he’s never seen her look that scared before.  

It takes everything he has to raise his arm, to try and tell her without wordsthat it’s gonna be okay — even though he’s starting to realize it  _ won’t _ — and that she should stay away.  He needs  _ her _ to be safe, at the very least.

Her face crumples, and she doesn’t stay there; she practically leaps out the window and runs to him, wrapping her arms around him.

“Let it out,” she says.  “Let it out, I can take it.”

It takes him a moment for him to realize what she means, that she wants him to transfer the energy to  _ her _ .

His brain feels like it’s burning, and he thinks that’s the reason he kisses her instead of doing something more sensible.  But that’s what he does, one of his hands sliding into her hair.

She holds him tighter, and then he can feel it — almost like a  _ flash _ of light, from inside his chest, up his throat.

It  _ works, _ and after a long moment, Alex pulls back from the kiss, and Armando feels his body beginning to recover.  She’s glowing, faintly, and his hand is still in her hair, and he smiles at her.

“Hey,” he says, his voice a little rough.

She flushes a little and hugs him, her arms tight around his waist again.  “You’re okay. You’re okay, right?” she asks, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

“Yeah, hotshot,” he murmurs, hugging her back.  “I am.”


End file.
